Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 28 Feb, 2022 01:15 PM
An Ontario court has extended to March 9 a freezing order on funds donated to the recent Ottawa convoy protest, as a class-action civil suit against protest organizers continues.
Parties in the case have agreed to move some donated funds and cryptocurrency into escrow, which could be redistributed to affected Ottawa residents and business owners should the class action succeed.
Norman Groot, a lawyer representing some convoy protest leaders, says ChristopherGarrah, Benjamin Dichter and Nicholas St. Louis have agreed in principle to moving donated funds within their control to an escrow account.
Groot notes the funds that Garrah, Dichter and St. Louis have agreed to move to escrow might not account for all the cryptocurrency that was donated, and he proposed parties meet next week to take stock of what has been transferred.
An escrow agent will oversee the transferred funds, and will be permitted to change the passwords for cryptocurrency.
The class-action lawsuit seeks a total of $306 million in damages related to the three-week anti-government convoy protest near Parliament Hill that snarled traffic, shut businesses and plagued residents with near-constant honking.
The robbery occurred around 6 p.m. on December 3, as holiday shoppers were visiting the Dunsmuir Street retailer. The suspect, who was masked, entered the store and deployed a cloud of bear spray, then walked over to a display rack and stole a $1,800 purse, before exiting the store and walking east on Dunsmuir to Seymour Street.
The federal government is extending, and slightly expanding, a travel exemption for Canadians trying to return home from South Africa. Earlier this month, the government lifted a requirement for Canadian travellers from South Africa to have a negative COVID-19 molecular test result in a third country before coming to Canada.
The University of Victoria in British Columbia will not be holding any further in-person exams this month. The school said its instructors have been asked to offer alternative exams online or in another format.
Canada is expecting a potentially massive surge in cases in the coming weeks, driven by the new Omicron variant already spreading through communities, said Dr. Theresa Tam. While COVID-19 might be with us for many years to come, Tam is optimistic the pandemic could end in the foreseeable future.
Streamed online from National Defence Headquarters, the apology followed the federal government’s $600-million settlement with tens of thousands of current and former Armed Forces members who experienced such behaviour while serving.
The agency says a low-pressure system is moving into the southern part of the province starting Monday night and is expected to stay on until Tuesday, bringing up to 20 centimetres of snow in some areas.
